Mercifully, "Bubba Bill" Clinton will soon ride off into the sunset.
When he does, the vast majority of Americans will heave a huge collective
sigh of relief. It is beyond cavil that Clinton disgraced the office of the
presidency. His sexual trysts with the portly pepperpot, Monica Lewinsky,
inside the oval office of the White House, stained the presidency.

How an air-headed intern, like Lewinsky, could have gained access to
the president will probably forever remain a matter of speculation. The
Special Prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, strangely failed to pursue that part of
the case. Clinton was convinced that his conversations with her were
being tapped by a foreign power, eager to gain leverage over him. Maybe,
Starr's successor, Robert Ray, will find the answers with his new probe.

It's clear to me that the Clinton/Lewinsky vulgarity is the heaviest
baggage that Al Gore will carry into the bitter campaign ahead. There is
also nothing he can do to change or alter it. Gore, a stiff politico,
mistakenly believed that by picking Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his vice
presidential mate, he could defect much of the deep resentment
throughout America towards "Bubba Bill's" wrongdoing. I'm sorry, but
that won't fly. It simply has too many holes in it.

To begin with, Lieberman is just as boring a campaigner as Gore is.
In fact, he may be worse, since he has such an inflated opinion of himself.
He comes off as a pompous know-it-all. Instead of adding political muscle
to the Democrats' bid, Lieberman also will cost Gore support from within
the rank and file. The blacks are very upset with the ticket. They have
felt, with justification, that it was long past the time for one of them,
like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, to receive the honor of being chosen as vice
president. Many in Big Labor, too, particularly the teachers' unions, aren't
crazy about Lieberman either. They don't see much difference between his
so-called "centrist" views and the union-bashing policies of the GOP.

Lieberman's religion, Judaism, shouldn't be an issue in the campaign.
That wouldn't be fair. But, he is a card carrying Zionist and his political
beliefs on that controversial issue will be open to debate. Although aid to
Israel is popular in the easily-coaxed Congress ($100 billion plus since
1948) that might not necessarily be true in rural and small town America.
With urban centers, too, like Baltimore, closing fire houses, libraries and
recreation centers, taxpayers are growing more vigilant then ever about
exactly where their tax dollars are being spent.

On the other side, the Republican ticket of George W. Bush, Jr. and
Dick Cheney is a mixed blessing for the GOP. Young Bush is an intellectual
lightweight, whose political resume' was carefully crafted by his father,
George W. Bush, Sr., the former president. Nevertheless, he can point to
the fact that he has done a relatively good job as governor of Texas,
despite his penchant for capital punishment.

Dick Cheney, a clever politico, is however, a big plus for Bush. At
age 29, he was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford. Then he became a
congressman from Wyoming, and later, a strong Secretary of Defense
during the co-presidency of Nancy and Ronald Reagan. In the private
sector, Cheney was a CEO at Halliburton, an oil service giant. When he left
to join the Bush team, he was given a $28 million retirement package. He
is true Washington insider, and, indeed, a wily political strategist.

Another serious minus for the Democrats this year is that two
popular candidates will be running on Third Party tickets: Ralph Nader on
the Green Party line, and pro-lifer, anti-New Word Order gadfly, Pat
Buchanan, heading up the Reform Party slate. They will both divert tons of
voters away from the Democrats. Nader will appeal to the liberal/left
constituents; and Buchanan to independents and Jeffersonian populists.

For many in the pro-life community, Gore is the ultimate anathema
because of his advocacy for the gruesome partial-birth abortion process.
Some Democrats have also not forgotten, nor forgiven, "Bubba Bill," and
Gore, too, for not permitting the late Robert Casey, then the Democratic
governor of Pennsylvania, from speaking at the 1996 Democratic National
Convention because he was pro-life. It was a gross insult that will now
come back to haunt the Gore-Lieberman camp.

Here's the bottom line: Unless the Democrats can come up with a
juicy sex scandal that will stick to Bush (and that appears highly unlikely
at this date) the GOP, in effect, will take the White House by default in
November. The Democrats will rightly blame "Bubba Bill" for losing the
election. He, in turn, in his heavily-fictionalized memoirs, will simply
fault the Secret Service-for not keeping Lewinsky out of the White House!

Copyright 2000, William Hughes, All Rights Reserved

Editor's Note-William Hughes is an Internet-based political
columnist.
He can be reached at: Bill Hughes' Mailbox

RESPONSE:&nbsp "I think the idea that, the majority of Americans are looking forward to Clinton
leaving office, is the proverbial conservative spin, reminiscent of Nixon's "silent
majority". The type of fascism that makes up the conservative party, is
expressly sent to the public, like the recent TV ad with the word "rats" at the
end of it, subliminally effective, and anti-Semitic. And I'm sure we will see more
of these kinds of ads, from the son of the president who put out the "Willie
Horton" ads. Like father, like son." carrico